Having mercilessly ravaged the seacoast, the hero of the Paoli massacre returned, heavily laden with plunder, to New York. The return of the British fleet and of the troops under Grey relieved the Americans from the anxious apprehension of an attack on their allies at Boston. Under that apprehension, Washington had broken up his camp at White Plains, and proceeding northward taken a position at Fredericksburg, thirty miles from West Point near the borders of Connecticut. He detached Generals Gates and M'Dougall to Danbury, in Connecticut, in order that they might be in readiness to move as circumstances might require, and he sent General Putnam to West Point to watch the North river and the important passes in the Highlands. But the return of the fleet and troops to New York quieted those apprehensions. Meanwhile Washington received intelligence that an expedition was preparing at New York, the object of which was not clearly apparent; but soon after the return of the troops under Grey the British army advanced in great force on both sides of the North river. The column on the west bank, consisting of 5,000 men commanded by Cornwallis, extended from the Hudson to the Hackensack. The division on the east side consisting of about 3,000 men under Knyphausen, stretched from the North river to the Bronx. The communication between them was kept up by flat-bottomed boats, by means of which the two divisions could have been readily united if the Americans had advanced against either of them. Washington sent out several detachments to observe the movements of those columns. Colonel Baylor, who with his regiment of cavalry consisting of upwards of a hundred men had been stationed near Paramus, crossed the Hackensack on the morning of the 27th of September and occupied Tappan or Herringtown, a small village near New Tappan, where some militia were posted. Of these circumstances Cornwallis received immediate notice and he formed a plan to surprise and cut off both the cavalry and militia. The execution of the enterprise against Baylor was entrusted to the unscrupulous General Grey, and Colonel Campbell with a detachment from Knyphausen's division was to cross the river and attack the militia at New Tappan. Colonel Campbell's part of the plan failed by some delay in the passage of the river, during which a deserter informed the militia of their danger and they saved themselves by flight. But Grey completely surprised Baylor's troops and killed, wounded, or took the greater part of them. Colonel Baylor was wounded and made prisoner. The slaughter on that occasion which as at the Paoli, was a literal massacre of surprised and defenseless men excited much indignation and was the subject of loud complaints throughout the United States.